Walk among the telescopes of the Murchison Radio-astronomy Observatory

Take a virtual tour of the Murchison Radio-astronomy Observatory – one of the world’s best locations for probing the universe.

Some of the ASKAP telescopes in the virtual tour.

If you’ve always wanted to get away to where you can’t be disturbed, the Murchison Radio-astronomy Observatory might be the place for you.

Located on Wajarri Yamaji land nearly 800km north-east from Perth, it is one of the world’s quietest places. That makes it perfect for probing the universe. So much so, part of the multi-national Square Kilometre Array will be based there.

In fully interactive 360-degrees you can explore different sites around the Murchison facility. Best of all it’s all in bright sunshine to sweep away any autumn blues.

Start by exploring around and between the 36 radio-telescope dishes that make up ASKAP. Each is 12m in diameter and are used to study galaxy formation.

Then, swing over to the Murchison Widefield Array, a low frequency array which carries out large surveys of the southern hemisphere sky. There you’ll find 256 tiles, each with 16 antennas, looking strangely like a swarm of spiders.

You can also discover the huge solar farm and lithium-ion battery – the world’s first hybrid-renewable facility to power a major remote astronomical observatory. It powers not only the telescopes, but also the MRO Control Building, inside which you can see the messy desks of the people who operate the MRO. Also inside the Control Building is the Correlator Room, which combines the signals from the 36 ASKAP telescopes to effectively create one giant telescope.

Data from Murchison is transmitted to the Pawsey Supercomputing Facility in Perth – also part of the virtual tour. Inside, the Cray Magnus computer sports a fetching Indigenous artwork. ‘SKA satellites on the Murchison’ by Margaret Whitehurst references the connection with north-west Western Australia.

About the Author

Ben Lewis
Ben Lewis is the Editor of Australia’s Science Channel, and a contributor to Cosmos Magazine. He has worked with scientists and science storytellers including Brian Cox, Chris Hadfield, Robert Llewellyn, astronauts, elite athletes, Antarctic explorers, chefs and comedians. Ben has also been involved in public events around Australia and was co-writer, producer and director of The Science of Doctor Who, which toured nationally in 2014 in association with BBC Worldwide Australia & New Zealand. Want more Ben? You can hear him on ABC and commercial radio in Adelaide, regional SA, across NSW, and the ACT. He also speaks at universities around Australia on communicating science to the public. Around the office he makes the worst jokes known to mankind.

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